“Barry!” she exclaimed, “you’ll do nothing of the kind! If you don’t close it up to-day you must drop it entirely, because I shall not come with you again to help you put it through.”
Barry pondered for a moment over this ultimatum, but he did not appear to be at all displeased.
“I’ll not insist,” he said, “on your coming again. In fact I think possibly I could get along with Mrs. Bradley better, don’t you know, if there wasn’t any one present to interfere.”
And then the widow closed the discussion. “I have decided,” she said, “to adopt Mr. Malleson’s suggestion, and hold the matter under advisement.” She turned to Barry. “I shall be glad to see you at any time, here or at my office in the Potter Building.”
Again those wonderful eyes, looking him through and through, not boldly or coquettishly, or in any unseemly way, but with a magnetic power that a far stronger will than his would have been unable to resist. Ruth rose and took Mrs. Bradley’s hand.
“I want you to come and see me,” she said. “We shall find so many things to talk about. You will come soon, won’t you?” She turned to Lamar and bowed smilingly. “You see, Mr. Lamar,” she said, “we women will have our own way, and Mrs. Bradley is just like the rest of us. Barry, if you and Jane are going now, I’ll ride down the hill with you.”
“We’re going now,” replied Miss Chichester, firmly. “Come, Barry!”
But Barry, who had risen, stood as if in a dream.
“Come, Barry!” repeated Miss Chichester. “Ruth is already in the street.”